Phnom Penh - Lawyers for the former chief torturer of Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge on Wednesday requested his release from prison, one day after he made a historic public apology and admitted guilt before a UN-backed tribunal.

Kaing Guek Eav, known by his revolutionary alias Duch, faces charges of crimes against humanity, torture, premeditated murder and breaches of the Geneva Conventions, but defence lawyers said his almost 10 years of pre-trial detention violated international law and the Cambodian constitution.

Phnom Penh  - Prosecutors at Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal on Tuesday told of prisoners at a notorious Khmer Rouge torture facility being bludgeoned to death, thrown from buildings and drained of their blood during the radical regime's 1975-79 reign.

In their opening arguments in the trial of former Tuol Sleng torture prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, known by his revolutionary name Duch, prosecutors described a meticulously organized apparatus of nearly four years of terror.

Phnom Penh  - As the trial of the Khmer Rouge's former chief torturer enters its most crucial stage Monday, court observers and victims of the genocidal regime have raised questions about the troubled UN-backed tribunal's role in Cambodia's search for justice and reconciliation.

More than three decades after the Khmer Rouge was toppled from power, former Tuol Sleng torture prison warden Kaign Guek Eav, known by his revolutionary name Duch, is to appear for the first substantial hearing of his trial on charges of war crimes, torture and breeches of the Geneva Conventions.

Phnom Penh  - The elegant woman has dainty hands and long, narrow feet. Her limbs are incredibly limber - she easily bends back her fingers until they touch her forearm, her toes at a 90-degree angle - the results of decades of training and dedication.

Vong Metry, 56, has been a classical dancer since the age of 5, an occupation that carried a death sentence after 1975, when Cambodia's murderous Khmer Rouge regime overran the country, killing almost everyone who was not a farmer or worker.

Phnom Penh - Attorneys for a former Khmer Rouge leader on Wednesday accused judges at Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal of undermining the court's transparency by ordering the defence team to remove legal documents from the defence's website.

Attorneys for former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary said in a statement that judges had acted with "flawed legal reasoning."

Phnom Penh - Judges at Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal on Tuesday said lawyers of a former Khmer Rouge leader faced "sanctions for a new offence" unless they removed confidential court documents from a website.

A statement released by the court said judges had told lawyers for former head-of-state Ieng Sary that they must remove all legal documents from the website, other than those available on the tribunal's own website.